This morning Jay Harney announced his campaign for Ward 4 Councilor would be coming to an end, one week after nomination papers were due.
As a result, the Ward 4 Ward Councilor seat seems likely to go to Chris Markiewicz, whose name was included on the city’s candidate list as of the July 25th deadline to the surprise of many.
Who is Chris Markiewicz? I haven’t met him, so I did some googling to try to find out more. Suffice it to say I had a difficult time finding anything, which apparently is the same conclusion that the Newton TAB came to when he was the only person listed as running in a competitive election for whom this was all they had to say: “Markiewicz does not have a website or Facebook page for his candidacy.”
Chris, although you missed the deadline to submit a candidate statement to Village14, which was August 1st, please consider this an invitation to introduce yourself in the comments and tell us how we can find out more about your candidacy and your positions. You may be the likely next city councilor, but I hope you’re still planning on earning the votes of your potential constituents.
It’s discouraging that nearly two days after Harney’s announcement, we still haven’t heard anything, from Chris Markiewicz here, or as far as I can tell, elsewhere.
Perhaps someone will run a write-in campaign if for no other reason than to provide incentive for Markiewicz to tell voters what he believes in.
(Heck, perhaps Councilor Sangiolo will run as a write in if she is not fortunate enough to advance after Sept. 12.)
A free, anonymous, ride onto our city council (where several important recent decisions were decided by a margin of one or two votes) is chilling.
Ward 4 deserves better. Newton deserves better. And this situation was entirely avoidable.
The Jay Harney press release certainly implies that things were set up to ensure that Markiewicz would get his seat.
This is an excellent paradigm for the clique-ocracy that passes for local government in these parts.
@Gregg
I’m kind of glad the candidate has not responded thus far.
This is after all, only a blog.
I find your commentary impertinent to say the least. It appears nobody here quite know what the details are, yet are happily jumping to conclusions. The nominees are under no obligation to share their views on this blog.
Seems to me that you set deadlines for candidates to provide materials. That passes. Some melodrama happens and then Bryan and you want to make some kind of exception. Now you are taking it as a personal affront that they do not respond in a timely manor. Given recent commentary and some of the vile nature of what can go on here, did it occur to you that they perhaps see little value in responding here, and may prefer other channels? Perhaps its an indication of how level headed a leader this person is going to be – not allowing you to dictate how and when they communicate!
Also given your job role, this is hardly the start of a great relationship!
Simon,
Do you know of any place Markiewicz has issued statements concerning his candidacy? He hasn’t mentioned anything in the Tab or the Globe. He has no candidate Facebook page or website. Wouldn’t you like to know something about a new body on the city council? Would you rather have an unknown entity making decisions for Newton? Please let us know what the other channels are.
The details are clear and the melodrama, if indeed there is any, was caused by the present Ward-elected Councilor for Ward 4 waiting to announce not only his withdrawal but also his successor until past the deadline set by the city (not by V14) to turn in papers to be a candidate. A small couple week window.
Michael,
Which clique-ocracy?
The issue isn’t that Chris hasn’t posted on V14 specifically, it’s that he hasn’t posted -anywhere- as of yet. A google search for “Chris Markiewicz Newton council” returns this article as the top result along with the TAB blurb that Greg mentioned. There’s no information about his background, why he’s running, what his major concerns/positions are and with Jay not seeking re-election his only opposition would be from a write-in candidate. By this point we’ve seen the majority of candidates (including incumbents) introduce themselves, if not here then on their own website/Facebook/etc…
Given that Chris was going up against an incumbent I would expect -something- by this point even if it’s just a short introduction for the TAB article. As it stands now we’re only going to have one official name on the ballot for our ward who we know almost nothing about. There’s still a good chunk of time before the election but it’s disconcerting, especially given the timing.
The fact that Markiewicz hadn’t build a web site, Facebook page, sent his photo to the TAB, statement to Village 14, etc. suggests that he likely knew he wasn’t going to be in a competitive contest, which makes Harney’s contention that he just decided to drop out after weeks of thinking about it, all the more suspect. It’s time Markiewicz to for step up.